have just been reading these postings with interest.
Below is a response I made to a question on 2nd battalion, The Parachute Regiment in Macedonia, about the 12 man sniper section of Patrols Company armed with ".338 calibre sniper weapons"

"It is the Accuracy International (see their ebsite) .338 (8.6mm) Super Magnum (also known as the Supra Lupua, 3000 fps) weapons system fitted with the Bausch & Lomb 10x42-power scope. Basically the L96A1design, only much better. Bolt action weapon, 5 round mag, 6.8kg (empty without telescope, 1268mm long. Its barrel is much heavier thean the L96. According to the blurb from AI it can be ordered in .300 Winchester and 7mm Remington Magnum calibres

This system gives first hit probability out to 1,100+ metres without the weight and recoil penalty of the .5 Browning cartridge was used by such 12.7mm weapons as the Barrett or the MacMillan.

The Royal Marines bought 44, and the regular army 73. Also is fitted in British service with the Simrad KN200 night optics.

I had the pleasure of firing it at the begining of the year, it is an absolutely unbelieviable piece of equipment. The .338 round has an incrediably flat trajectory, actual bullet is made out of tungston (A$15:80 each), and its kinetic energy is 85% of the .5 Browning on impact. It also comes in at one third of the price of the .5 Barrett M90A1.

A very old friend (served together at Infantry Centre) is the AI rep in AUST/NZ, he got both to buy the L96 in 7.62mm. But, for some reason the
AUST Army has a fixation with the Barrett, and will so buy. Weapon and ammunition more expensive, spare parts extremely expensive (firing pin $114,
and break after some 38-40 rounds!), big heavy awkward thing to carry, operator needs specialist training beyond that normally needed by a
marksman/sniper. Totally beyond me.

I must admit I'm bias, in my youth I was a very good shot, and was still shooting on a regular basis until about ten years ago. In recent years only to the range with the Steyr. I put three rounds through on a known distance range at Holdsworthy, 100mm grouping, thats without zeroing! Could not believe it, recoil the same as the Steyr.

A very impressive piece of military equipment."

This American website, Snip Country may be of interest:
http://www.snipercountry.com/sniper.htm

Yours,
Jock in Sydney

Jock

Ladies and Gentlemen,
have just been reading these postings with interest.
Below is a response I made to a question on 2nd battalion, The Parachute Regiment in Macedonia, about the 12 man sniper section of Patrols Company armed with ".338 calibre sniper weapons"

"It is the Accuracy International (see their website) .338 (8.6mm) Super Magnum (also known as the Supra Lupua, 3000 fps) weapons system fitted with the Bausch & Lomb 10x42-power scope. Basically the L96A1 design, only much better. Bolt action weapon, 5 round mag, 6.8kg (empty without telescope, 1268mm long. Its barrel is much heavier than the L96. According to the blurb from AI it can be ordered in .300 Winchester and 7mm Remington Magnum calibres

This system gives first hit probability out to 1,100+ metres without the weight and recoil penalty of the .5 Browning cartridge as used by such 12.7mm weapons as the Barrett or the MacMillan.

The Royal Marines bought 44, and the regular army 73. Also is fitted in British service with the Simrad KN200 night optics.

I had the pleasure of firing it at the begining of the year, it is an absolutely unbelievable piece of equipment. The .338 round has an incrediably flat trajectory, actual bullet is made out of tungston (A$15:80 each), and its kinetic energy is 85% of the .5 Browning on impact. It also comes in at one third of the price of the .5 Barrett M90A1.

A very old friend (served together at Infantry Centre) is the AI rep in AUST/NZ, he got both to buy the L96 in 7.62mm. But, for some reason the
AUST Army has a fixation with the Barrett M90A1, and will so buy. Weapon and ammunition much more expensive, spare parts extremely expensive (firing pin $114, and break after some 38-40 rounds!), big heavy awkward thing to carry, operator needs specialist training beyond that normally needed by a marksman/sniper. Totally beyond me.

I must admit I'm bias, in my youth I was a very good shot, and was still shooting on a regular basis until about ten years ago. In recent years however only to the range with the Steyr, and 9mm Browning. I put three rounds through on a known distance range at Holdsworthy, 100mm grouping at 950 metres, thats without zeroing! Could not believe it, recoil the same as the Steyr.

A very impressive piece of military equipment."

This American website, Sniper Country may be of interest:
http://www.snipercountry.com/sniper.htm

Yours,
Jock in Sydney

Jock